Learn · the three-way ledger
Wispr Flow vs Superwhisper
These are the two dictation apps Mac users actually cross-shop, and
they made opposite bets. Wispr Flow put transcription in its cloud and
spent the effort on polish. Superwhisper put the models on your Mac
and handed you the controls. Both run the same loop: press a key,
talk, and text appears at your cursor.
One disclosure before the table: Dictate is our app, and it sits in
the right-hand column below. The Wispr Flow and Superwhisper verdicts
come first.
All three, side by side
| Dimension | Wispr Flow | Superwhisper |
Dictate
our app |
| Pricing | Free plan capped at 2,000 words/week; Pro $15/mo, or $12/mo billed annually | Subscription, plus a lifetime tier third-party-reported around $249.99 | $8/month. One plan. |
| Setup | Create an account | Pick and download models; add your own API keys if you want cloud models | Subscribe and sign in |
| Where speech is processed | Their cloud | On your Mac with local models; cloud models optional | Our servers, over TLS; audio discarded after transcription |
| Insertion | At your cursor | At your cursor | Where your cursor was when you pressed the key, with a paste fallback for apps that fight it |
| Polish / AI rewrite | Yes | Yes, through configurable modes | Yes, one optional step |
| Works offline | No; transcription happens in their cloud | Yes, with local models | Transcription needs a connection. The subscription check doesn’t: it’s a signed ticket cached on your Mac. |
| Platforms | macOS-first; they list others on their site | macOS-first | macOS only |
Prices and tiers checked July 2026 against each product’s site and
third-party listings. They move, so confirm before you buy. Where we
couldn’t verify a detail about the other two, we left it out rather
than guessing.
Verdict 1 of 2
Choose Wispr Flow if managed and polished is the point
You want dictation that behaves like a finished product. Wispr
Flow’s cloud handles transcription, so there is nothing to download
and no model catalog to reason about. It is well funded and ships
often, and the free plan’s 2,000 words a week are enough to test
the accuracy on your own voice before paying.
The costs: Pro is $15 a month, the highest ongoing price on this
page, and your audio is processed on their servers. What happens to
it there is their policy to state, not ours, so read it before you
commit. If the price is the sticking point, we keep a fuller list of
Wispr Flow alternatives.
Verdict 2 of 2
Choose Superwhisper if audio must stay on your Mac
Local models are the strongest privacy position in this category.
Run Superwhisper on-device and your audio never touches a network,
which beats any cloud policy, including ours. Config depth is the
other draw: model choice, per-app modes, custom prompts, your own
API keys when you want cloud quality. And the lifetime tier can
beat years of subscriptions if you know you’ll stay.
The costs: you are the admin now. You choose models, download them,
and tune them, and quality is capped by what your Mac can run. If
that job description reads like a chore, see our
Superwhisper alternatives.
If one of those two paragraphs read like a description of you, you’re
done. Buy that one. If both left you cold, keep scrolling: that gap is
the reason the third column exists.
Dictate is our app
The third column
Dictate is for the reader who got this far and wanted neither the $15
subscription nor the model catalog. Same loop: hold a key, talk,
release, and the text lands where your cursor was. Setup is signing
in. The price is
$8 a month,
one plan, no word caps.
The limits: audio goes to our servers over TLS, gets transcribed,
and is discarded. History keeps
the text, never the recording. It is not a local tool, so if
on-device already won this page for you, that’s Superwhisper.
Transcription needs a connection; the subscription check doesn’t,
because it’s a signed ticket cached on your Mac, and a dropped
network can’t lock you out. A subscription you never used is
refunded in full.
